Let me tell you, it was a struggle from the very start. It had snowed the night before in NY, so the snowplow truck had packed snow all around my car when it was scraping the roads. We were staring at my car trying to figure out how we were going to get out of the mess. It was Laura's turn to drive in the city (my nerves were shot from driving before!) and it was up to her to get us out of the parking spot! A nice man stopped by my car and told her to back up onto the little hill of snow behind her, so that it would give her momentum when she put it in drive. It worked! Y'all, I had to chase her down the street to get back in the car! That was about the only humorous thing that happened that day.
We made it out of the city and were slowly, but surely making our way down to Washington, DC. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to get there and the sky was so gloomy. We were both so exhausted and the weather was making it hard to be excited about our visit. It started to sprinkle once we got parked, so we cut our trip a little short by only seeing the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, and a glimpse of the White House.
Everything was beautiful to see again, but we were so ready to get back on the road to Haymarket, Virginia. Laura knew someone we could stay with there and that would be our halfway point before heading back to North Carolina. However, since we were moving southward, we both starting craving some sweet tea that we weren't able to get all week! We treated ourselves to Outback before continuing our drive, it was delicious and much needed.
We made it to Virginia only to find out that the weather was supposed to be horrible the next day. Sure enough, we woke up to a winter wonderland. It was gorgeous and crappy all at the same time. It was pouring down snow and we still had another 6 hours to go before we made it home. We were frustrated to say the least. It turned out that we didn't even know what frustrated was yet....
About an hour down the road, I was ready to make a pit-stop and stretch. The weather was stressing us out because we had never really experienced those kind of conditions before. We had just saw a van spin-out in front of us, so the next gas station was our next stop. As soon as I said, "I think I'm going to stop at the next rest station," my driver's side windshield wiper went limp and stopped working! Y'all, words cannot describe how I felt in that moment. Furious, because we were on our way home. Scared, because I couldn't see out of the windshield. Tired, angry, annoyed....blah, blah, blah. It was awful. I pulled over on the side of the highway to see if there was anything we could see or do about it.
I called my dad and told him was was going on. Thankfully, we were directly across from a gas station. I waited until no traffic was coming and pulled through into the parking lot. We got out and ran inside to plan our next step. That moment was such a God thing because we walked in to the most friendly and caring environment! The three ladies behind the counter were such blessings to us. They gave us coffee and were calling local auto parts stores to see if they stocked my type of wiper. It felt like we had knew these ladies our whole lives! We ended up calling Triple A (I know what you're thinking, for a windshield wiper?). Y'all, we were in the middle of nowhere and we had no idea what we were going to do. Both sets of parents were hours away and it was pouring snow. We were completely stuck.The Triple A guy towed us to the next service station. Big surprise, they were closed due to the weather.
The ladies from the gas station before got in touch with us and sent their husbands to the service station! What an amazing and selfless thing. We were complete strangers to them and they were so generous and kind to us. Mr. Lee and Mr. Todd took my wiper off and discovered it was entirely stripped on the inside. Mr. Lee took the passenger side wiper and switched it over to the driver's side. This let us get to the next town over to grab a hotel room. Our trip was extended another stinking day. We were SO over the snow by this time!
The next morning we were up and ready to get out of Virginia, we were still a good ways from home. It was smooth sailing from Madison, Virginia to home. We made it back safely and I am still one wiper short. Luckily, I'm going home this weekend to get it fixed! The trip was one for the books, at least the book of half fun, half completely outrageous events. At the end of the day, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat! Well...maybe minus the snow.
Windshield, featuring my ratch one wiper that doesn't even lay down straight.
I hope everyone's spring break was just as eventful and awesome. Hopefully, y'all had a little better luck than we did. But, we made some amazing new friends that even checked on us when we got back home! If you're ever in Madison, Virginia, know that you're in a good place!
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